High Adventure 2007

Ross Lake

Ross Lake was formed in 1950 by the damming of the Skagit River. The lake stretches 20 miles from Highway 20 in Washington to just across the Canadian border. A series of 20 back country campsites, many with boat docks line the lake on either side. There are three ways to get onto the lake. You can stay at Ross Lake Resort (a floating series of cabins), you can hike in, or you can drive up into Canada and down a 40 mile dirt road to the north end of the lake where there is a boat launch. Our plan was for option three.

Last years High Adventure was in the Enchantments, this year the boys didn't want to hike, so we planned a Ross Lake canoe trip. My first high adventure, over 23 years ago was a 50 mile canoe trip to Lake Shoshone in Yellowstone and I looked forward to this one.

Jeff Nye and his brother Rod have been to Ross Lake many many times, Rod provided a lot of guidance and suggestion (I exchanged many long emails with him). After much discussion our plan was to borrow canoes from Rod's ward and take a support boat to the boat launch on the north shore on Monday. Canoe 25 miles to the south end of the lake by Wednesday evening, where we'd swap out adult leaders and then they'd paddle 25 miles back to the boat launch and drive home. Originally we had too many boys and adult leaders for the 12 person group limit and were going to have to split into two groups, but as usually happens we had enough drop out that by the end we shortened some adults to a half a week and we had a single group of 12. Over the course of the summer we did several planning activities : Saftey Afloat presentations, canoe swamping, canoing to Cooper Lake and paddling practice at Lake Sammamish.

Finally the time arrived, food had been purchased, logistics arranged; we were ready, or as close to ready as we would get. I went and got the canoes from Bob Rostrum and Sunday evening we met at Lee's house to pack the cooler with food, load gear into the boat and prepare the canoes. We unfortunately discovered that Marlow's suburban didn't have any tail lights, so we scrambled and borrowed Bishop Hancock's Jeep to haul the canoes, and as a result of the smaller vehicle I had to drive as well.

Day One - Monday

Monday we met at the parking lot at Tibbets park for goodbyes and departures. We were supposed to be there by 5:30 and depart by 6. I was late because I baked some hot blue berry muffins for breakfast, Lee was late cause he was showering. When Lee got there at 6:10 we found the adapter didn't fit for the trailer lights, so I had to call and wake up Bishop Hancock and drive up and get his adapter for his jeep. By 6:30 we were finally off, driving north on I-5 heading for the border. At Bellingham, we took 542 to Nooksack and then 9 north to Sumas where we crossed the border. I went on ahead in my Honda, with Mitchell, Mike Rennie and Ethan and crossed first. I made the boys take a vow of silence at the crossing, I didn't want anyone saying anything smarmy or stupid and get us stopped. We crossed safely and headed into Canada for a short drive along Trans Canadian Highway 1 towards Hope. John waited for Lee at Sumas, where they filled up the water jugs and got gas.

Just before Hope, we took exit 168 for Flood-Hope Rd, turning right is Silver Skagit Road with signs for Silver Lake Provincial Park. The paved road quickly turned to gravel and we drove the 40 miles in dirt and dust back into America. We arrived at the Hozomeen Ranger station by 10:30 am. A Canadian ranger had just drove up (apparently they share operation of the facilities) and she helped call the Marblemount Ranger station on the phone and reserve our campsites, unfortunately all the islands were taken already.

Day	Destination	Distance to Destination
Monday	Lightening Creek Stock	10
Tuesday	Roland Point	8.5
Wednesday	McMillan	1
Thursday	Lodgepole	7
Friday	Boundary Bay	5
Saturday	Boat Launch	6

We pulled into the parking lot for the boat launch and hung out playing on the dock and the logs. My 11:30 I was starting to wonder what had happened to Lee and the boat and John and the canoes, finally at noon they pulled into the parking lot. Come to find out, John (who was in charge of collecting all the boys paper work for the event) forgot his passport at home and had a 15 minute questioning and lecturing session at the border, irony indeed. We quickly unloaded the gear and canoes, and got the boys in their canoes and had them paddle to a floating dock just off shore. We then got Lee's boat in the water and the flotilla embarked for Lightning Creek, 10 miles away at 1 pm.

John and I quickly passed the scouts, mostly due to the fact that we were going in a straight line, a bee line, and the scouts were doing what I called a Z-line, zig zagging back and forth. I had heard there were waterfalls on the west side of the lake (there are very few campsites on that side), so John and I paddled to the other side of the lake and explored one falls that was gushing out of a stream right at the waters edge and another one that was up a small narrow gorge. Lee visited us on the water in the boat and gave us some cold water, an apple and some grapes. He reported that all the boys were doing good and making progress. John and I, despite our foray across the lake were still ahead of the boys and paddled past Cat Island into Lightning Creek. We arrived at camp at just before 5:30, 4 and 1/2 hours after we left having paddled 11 miles.

As soon as I got on the dock, I took off my shirt and dove in the water, it was really warm for a mountain lake and was refreshing. We helped Lee unload the tent and watched as each of the boy's canoes made their way into the dock. First came Peter and Kevin, then Michael Green and David and then Cameron and Mitchell, Mike Rennie and Ethan were still making there way around Cat Island and had a ways to go. We got the boys to help us unload the rest of the group gear and then we set off for Lightning Creek suspension bridge which spans the creek of the same name. As we paddled in I saw a sign on the bridge, I was sure this would be a no-jumping sign, but it was only restricting fishing, so off we went to jump. Come to find out later from Rod Nye there used to be signs restricting jumping but they were taken down by someone, so technically we weren't supposed to be jumping, but we didn't know. Everyone jumped (including me, though I have no photographic proof) except for Peter and Mike Rennie, the more cautious (and probably wiser) of the group. While we were jumping Mike and Ethan pulled up to the dock, we cheered them on and then did a little cliff jumping before returning to camp for dinner.

Dinner for the adults was a sad affair. I had planned for tri-tip steak and potatoes, but somehow in the food shuffle the tri-tip either got left behind by me, or left in a cooler swap Sunday evening. So we ended up with mashed potatoes, with sour cream, bacon bits and butter and some aged cheddar and crackers and bread. Pathetic, especially compared to Michael Green and David's Filet Mignon and Mike Rennie and Ethan's steak (a couple of mother's admitted to not even looking at what their sons bought at the grocery store). Afterwards we sat around the fire and had our scout masters minute and spiritual thought before making our way to bed, tired from the paddling.

Day Two - Tuesday

Tuesday morning I woke early hoping for a nice sunset, gray clouds had blown in and the world was muted with no color. I read for a while and then went rousing the boys. Breakfast was mancake pancakes cooked by John. Then we tried to rally the boys to go exploring Lightning Creek, but none of them would hear anything of it, they didn't want to paddle an inch further in any direction other than our next camp. They all opted to stay in camp while Lee, John and myself paddled under the bridge and up Lightning Creek. I'll admit I was a bit disappointed by how short the canyon was, a few hundred feet and you were at the log jam near the end. I scrambled up over some rocks and took some pictures of the upper end of the creek and then we paddled back. The boys were all loaded up and canoe by canoe they departed in a flotilla heading south. At this point they thought they were only paddling 6 miles to Rainbow Point, which is what I had told them the night before. I had originally requested Rainbow, but it was full and so we got shuffled to Roland Point, however I had forgotten this point when giving them the destination the night before. I didn't have the heart to tell them it was 9 miles instead of 6, so we let them depart under false pretense and we'd give them the bad news further down the lake.

John and I once again paddled to the opposite side of the lake, unfortunately the wind had picked up and there were tiny white caps and 1 foot swells. Tired we finally made it to the other side and stopped on a rocky point waiting for the wind to subside. We paddled up to another small waterfall and admired the cascades and then started making our way for the other side. Shortly after this the wind really picked up, hitting 20 miles per hour at times I'd guess, which drove us to a complete stand still in the water. The waves turned into big rollers with 3 1/2 foot swells, there were times when we were shooting down one and up the other, this was preferable to them breaking over your bow. After so many waves you got the feel for them and would adjust speed accordingly to scoot upside and down the other instead of breaking through. The paddling was hard and progress seemed interminable slow. I really wanted to take a photo, but I had to focus on the task at hand; it took immense concentration to anticipate the waves and keep the boat straight heading perpendicular to the waves.

Eventually we pulled across to the other side and arrived at the next promontory : Rainbow Point where we stopped for a late lunch break. The scouts were tuckered out and asked incessantly why we couldn't just stay at Rainbow Point for the night. After some food and a rest, we got back in the canoes and headed out for the last 3 miles to camp. The wind had died down a bit and the paddling wasn't too bad, though rounding the rocks into Roland Point got a bit dicey as you got parallel to the waves and had a hard time keeping the canoe upright. Ethan and Mike Rennie were bringing up the last leg again, several of us piled into the boat to go check on them and cheer them in. John knew they would be rounding a point and so he hiked out and waited on a rock. As Ethan and Mike passed close he launched himself off the rock in a sideways cannon ball and splashing them. He said later that Ethan was not very happy. When Kevin saw this he got the same idea and had Lee pull along side and he jumped into splash them, though as he surfaced his nose hit the boat in a cosmic retribution.

At camp we cooked up some dinner, I cooked up some Italian Chicken sausage, sauteed some garlic in olive oil and threw it all together. We had the boys salivating, and I got Mitchell to wash the pots and pans in return for a serving. After dinner we had another scout masters minute where I spoke about my climb and then while the boys went off to bed the adults read around the fire. I was reading Providence of a Sparrow, which is a great book but it has taken me a long time to finish, insightful but not "gripping" per se. The wind blew strong all night and I loved the way it sounded as it blew through the pines, we trundled off to bed and prayed for blue skies tomorrow.

Day Three - Wednesday

My alarm went off at 5:45 and I decided to stay in bed, Lee got up shortly after to go to the bathroom and as he left the tent I asked him what it looked like outside, his reply "Same as yesterday", convinced me I had made the right choice. When he returned however he said "Looks like its going to clear", I guess his glasses weren't on when he first went out. I got up and wandered down to the point with my camera and GND filter to take some photos, the light was hitting the tops of the peaks and the skies were full of clouds with lots of blue sky behind them. Returning to camp I worked on getting the boys out of their tents. Cameron was quite resistant untill I pulled off his sleeping bag and went running down the trail in his barefoot after me. David Potts can get a bit moody in the morning and was so annoyed with me he shouted : "I hate everyone with the word M in their name". It became a phrase I would shout at him through the rest of the day, much to his continued chagrin. Breakfast was John's breakfast burritos : onions, sausage, eggs and cheese in a tortilla. Once again the boys were begging for food, Mitchel whined till he got one and Mike invoked syrup rights from he and Ethan lending us syrup from the morning before for our mancakes.

Our plans for the day were hotly contested by the boys. We were to paddle another 3-4 miles to the end of the lake to switch out with the other adult leaders. Prior to that we planned on visiting some cliffs on the Ruby Arm down near Hidden Cove and do some swimming. The boys once again did not want to paddle at all. This was complicated by the fact that their next night's camp was at McMillan Point, a short 3/4 mile around the other side of the horn from Roland Point, the problem was it was in the opposite direction of the transfer point. As a compromise we agreed to ferry all the gear via the boat to McMillan Point, and then the boys would paddle with empty canoes to the the cliffs. In exchange they'd then get towed by the boat back up the Ruby Arm to the Ross Lake Resort our transfer point.

When we returned to the camp from porting the gear over, the boys had lit one of the campfire benches on fire. When I asked why, they replied it was old. In other words, no good reason other than young male pyromania. When the last coals were doused with water we paddled down lake to the Ruby Arm where we turned left (west) and paddled a short distance to the set of cliffs jutting out on a point. One side had rocks ranging from 4 to 35 feet high, while the other side was on a cove and had a couple of very high 45 to 55 foot cliffs. We hung out on the shorter side and where we had lunch, swam and jumped for several hours. By that time they had jumped from the highest point on the shorter side, around 35 feet. As they climbed up to the top of the shorter side, Kevin decided he was going to jump from the high jumps on the cove. We pulled the boat around so they had someplace closer to swim to and Kevin and Cameron both jumped, especially when Lee promised them a hot shower on the boat. Mitchell wanted to, and spent quite a bit of time hemming and hawing, until finally Mike Rennie yelled : "You've wasted 10 minutes of my life". We gave him a 1 minute ultimatum, at which point we were returning the boat to the other side. Right at the end Mitchell launched himself off into space, guts and glory to those who jump, even if it takes a while to work up the courage.

Around 3:30 pm we paddled a couple of hundred yards further up the arm to a waterfall that cascaded down a series of rock falls. I got out with the boys and we climbed up toward the top. On one particularly mossy section just before the top of the falls, Mitchell climbed up and as I followed, a rock that had been solid for him pulled away from the wall as I put some weight behind it. I slid/fell about 6 feet down the mossy wall and then slid out in a flatish chute for another 6 feet before stopping. I was shaken but surprisingly not badly hurt aside from a few bruises and scrapes. I made my way back to the bottom of the falls to the lake. Since I was already wet I encouraged John and several of the boys to swim over and stand underneath the waterfall. It was a head pounding numbing cold refreshing sensation, which you could only stand for a few minutes due to the icy and extremely hard water hitting your head and back. The best part was swimming back out into the lake where the lake water felt really warm after the cold waterfall. Even better was Lee getting out the hot shower hose on his boat and squirting us with warm water.

When everyone climbed back down and swam in the waterfall for a while it was time to depart for Ross Lake Resort. As the boys lined up to tie their canoes together and to Lee's boat, John and I decided to not wait around but paddle back to the cliffs. As we did so our old nemesis the wind returned, and it would intermittently blow great gusts and then calm. We made it to the cliffs and waited around for a good 15 minutes while the boys tied up and got underway. As they got close to us, Kevin and Cameron capsized due to the speed Lee was going and the boys jackknifing their canoes back and forth. Finally they righted the canoe, got Cameron and Peter in the boat and the boys were all holding on to each others canoes while Lee drug them over to us. After witnessing the capsizing and listening to the boys caterwaul, John and opted to ride in the boat and have the boys just tie our canoe to the end of the chain. Slowly, with much whining from the scouts about us going too fast or too slow we made our way to Ross Lake Resort.

Trevor Downs, Marlow Green and Brian Knudsen were waiting for us at the dock. Lee filled his boat up on gas, the boys ran in and bought tons of candy and we posed for one last group photo with all of us. Just as we did my battery on my camera finally died. We got the boys in their canoes, offered a few parting words of advice to the new adult leaders and watched them paddle their way back up the lake to their campsite. I really was wishing at this point that I was staying the entire week, but work and family were waiting. John and I paid our dollar to ride the water taxi to the other side of the lake where we hiked a mile up a fairly steep trail to Highway 20 where Krissy's car (Trevor's girlfriends) was waiting for us. We drove back down Highway 20, stopping in Concrete at a burger joint for a hamburger and a blackberry shake. Then the long drive back to Mt. Vernon, and then down I-5, 405 and home. What a grand adventure, we thought wistfully of the boys on the lake and wished the good weather, God speed and a safe return.

Lessons Learned

• Bring gloves for your hands, otherwise you'll get blisters
• Bring a pad to sit on, a long day on a hard seat is hard on the bum
• Aluminum canoes with a keel are so much better than plastic ones (lighter and go straighter) Ours was a Grumman Canoe.
• A good paddle partner is key
  

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